Dear Sycamore Community School District 427 community,
For the last several months, we've conducted a study of our elementary school boundaries. We have shared our tentative plan with you and gathered feedback about the plan and its impact on our families. Although changes to the elementary school boundaries will allow us to be a better steward of the resources you provide for us, we recognize that those changes will have a personal impact on those of you whose homes will be located in a new elementary boundary next year. Throughout the process, that has remained at the forefront of our discussions.
With that in mind and to be as transparent as possible, I want to share one final piece of my recommendation which I will present to the Board of Education this evening. One of the factors I wanted to consider was whether or not we could exempt 4th and 5th-grade students to allow them to stay in their current elementary school next year. After much consideration, we've determined that we do not have the physical space to allow that, and therefore I will be recommending that all students move to their new school for the 2023-2024 school year.
In order to allow one student to stay in their current school, we needed to be able to commit to allowing all older students in all five elementary schools to stay. Again, we recognize the impact this decision will have on students and families. The district was not able to allow any students to remain at their current school when we last redistricted our elementary schools in 2013. We had hoped that the smaller number of students involved would give us some flexibility. Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case.
I appreciate your understanding during this process, as well as all the feedback we received. It was important to me that we share this information before making my recommendation this evening.
Sincerely,